Ornament Sort and Match

Can we say Christmas!!  Ah yes.  It's such a fun time of the year and the children are most likely so excited, but going stir crazy in the house due to colder weather.  Fortunately, we've been blessed with decent weather and my kiddos have gotten outside for at least a few minutes a day, but somehow they are still getting into everything with all the decorations sitting around.  This year, I purchased an extra set of ornaments for them to play with thinking they'd leave mine alone.  While they were excited to see and play with them, they still mess with my ornaments, but not nearly as much as they probably would.

All you really need is shatterproof ornaments of different colors.  I chose three colors, but you can choose as many as you wish.  Mine are also shiny and matte which was a plus!

First, we started with the box of ornaments and we talked about the color, the shape, and the textures.  After that, I let them go to work.  They started placing them in piles according to their colors.

Once there were multiple ornaments in each pile, they started placing them into rows.

I took the opportunity to discuss what "rows" are and we then proceeded to count how many were in each row.

Finally, we sorted them according to their textures.  They really enjoyed looking at their reflections in the shiny ornaments.  They prefer the shiny ornaments to the matte. :-)

This is a quick and simple activity for your kiddos that can keep them busy and hopefully distracted from the Christmas bustle!

Paper Clip Color Sort

This is a fun, yet unique way of helping children learn 6 basic colors, as well as learning how to improve their eye-hand coordination.  In teacher terms, the paper clips serve as an educational manipulative that helps children identify colors, as well as place a small item onto the coordinating color.  This is a quick activity that you can throw together that will get kiddos' learning colors in no time!

While children are sorting their colors, they will be learning more about:

• Eye-hand coordination
• How to manipulate smaller objects - fine motor skills
• Counting and numbers
• Colors
• Language such as; in a row, line up, side by side, horizontal

Simple materials that you will need are:

• Colored paper clips

• Colored pieces of paper - mine are white, pink, red, yellow, blue, & green to coordinate with the colored paper clips.  If you want them to last longer, you can buy laminate sheets to coat the papers to make them stronger

First, I gave the kiddos the colored cards and told them to place them in a row, side by side.  I, as well, did this so they could have a role model.  There was a bit of a struggle with it, but they got it with a little assistance.  We also talked about the different colors.

After the colored row was made, I then handed them a handful of colored clips and they basically went to town.  They didn't even wait for me to give them instructions.  If I were to give them the instructions prior to, I'd ask them to place the colored clip on the matching paper.

Not sure if you remember, but I have boy/girl twins.  It's hard NOT to compare them, but I still do at times.  My daughter is THE KNOW IT ALL.  She always has an answer to everything and she's normally correct.  My son struggles a bit, mixes his colors up, but he's not far behind her.  This activity was mostly dedicated for him to practice his colors.  He did a great job at matching, but still needs a bit of work at identifying!

Once they were finished sorting and matching, we did some counting of how many clips were on our colored paper.  I also tried to show them how to "clip" the paper clip onto the paper.  This activity is an extension of the sorting activity and my kiddos did struggle with this, but we'll keep on practicing!

Enjoy!

"Straw" Sort and Drop

I'm going to admit that this next activity is really more of a "keep the kiddo busy" kind of deal, but in all reality, these activities are also very educational as well.  Again, this activity doesn't call for much and it can be a fun, yet time consuming activity for the kiddos.  I hope everyone enjoys!

While playing, you kiddo can learn:

• Patience
• Eye-hand coordination
• Fine motor skills
• Sorting - based on colors, sizes
• Visual discrimination - distinguishing differences between objects
• Math
• Size differentiation

You will need:

• A clean grated cheese container; or small pop bottle; or cups of different sizes
• Straws, pipe cleaners (chenille stems), chop sticks, unsharpened pencils, old markers - anything long and rather thin

This activity actually doesn't involve any handy work on your behalf.  All you have to do really is collect the items that you need.  I used a grated cheese container and straws because those were the items I had handy around the house.  Be creative and look around and see what you can find!

Here's how it works.  Have your kiddo take the long, thin item of your choice and stick it into the small holes.  That's it!  The fun actually is letting your kiddo see how many "objects" they can fit into the holes.  For instance, observe and ask these questions (based on using the straws and grated cheese container):

• How many straws fit into the smaller holes compared to the bigger hole?
• Can you put all of the red straws into the big hole?
• How many straws do you have all together?

Honestly, this activity is all yours to play around with!  Have fun and let me know what other objects you've used that have worked for you!

"Lots of Lids" Size & Sort

Have you ever wondered what you could possibly do with all those left over containers.  Of course you can recycle them which is always a great thing, but before recycling, you can give them to your little one for a great educational experience.  This activity is so simple that it takes little effort to put together.

For this activity, the only items you will need are a variety of plastic containers with their corresponding lids.  So easy!



While playing with the lids and containers, children will develop:

• Fine motor skills through manipulating the containers and lids
• Eye-hand coordination
• Size differentiation - small, medium, large
• Sorting
• Shapes - cylinders, cubes, ovals, circles (this all depends on what kind of containers you have)

To play, all you need to do is lay out the lids and containers side by side and let your youngster explore and investigate the different sizes of containers.  If your child is a little younger, feel free to give them a little push and show them that the lids go on top of the containers.  I bet they'll enjoy doing this activity and it might keep them busy for a some time so you might be able to get some stuff done as well!  :-)

Have fun!

"Pick a Card" Math Game

Last year, my husband started playing poker and really enjoyed it.  For his birthday party, I planned a poker theme and bought several decks of cards.  During the party, they were highly used and after that, not so much.  I left them in a box in the basement thinking I would probably never use them again, but to my surprise I have thought of a great use for those extra cards!  I am going to teach you a simple math game that you can create using one deck (or more) of cards and a few extra items you find around the house.


While playing this game, your child will learn:

• Number recognition
• Sorting and classifying skills
• Counting
• Shape and color reinforcement
• Social skills, such as turn taking, if he/she is playing with another friend

The materials you will need include:

• Plastic cups - doesn't matter which color they are
• Black permanent marker
• A deck (or more) of playing cards

First, count out at least nine cups.  Unfortunately, with a deck of cards you will not be able to teach ALL the numbers from 1-10, but you will be able to teach most of them.  *If you want to, you can take a A, K, Q, J card and tape a piece of paper over it and write the number one on it to make your own "one" card for the game*  

Next, take your cups and the permanent marker and place the numbers 2-10 on the cups.

Once there is a number on each cup, place them in any order that you feel is developmentally appropriate for your child.  Then give your child the deck of cards. *If this is the first time you are completing the activity, start with half the deck and you can work up to the whole deck*  Encourage your child to sort through the cards and you can also help as needed.

After the cards are displayed for the child, encourage him or her to name the number on the card, and then place into the appropriate numbered cup.

  

This activity is a great math activity and yet so simple to make!  If you don't have plastic cups available, you can use plastic/styrofoam plates or bowls as well!

Have fun!

Extension Idea:

So what to do with those A, K, Q, J cards?  Go ahead and make cups for those as well!  You can either combine the two activities together or separate them.